


25 Ways of Stumbling

by Reveriemare



Series: Christmas season is heeeere! [1]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Advent Calendar, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Might not be updated regularly, Schmico, we need to overcome this hiatus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-13 17:07:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16896591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reveriemare/pseuds/Reveriemare
Summary: Christmas calendar story with approx. 26 mini-chapters (uploaded very irregularly, so sorry!) where Levi is stuck at the hospital for Christmas ("I'M ON CALL!?") and has to endure all the drama that adds up around this time of year. Luckily, his friends are there for him as well as a certain hot ortho god. (Schmico included) Rated T just to be sure





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [outphan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/outphan/gifts).



> Hi you all :)
> 
> After watching parts of GA's last episode, I couldn't stop thinking about Nico and Levi and since I cannot wait for the hiatus to end and Christmas is about to begin, I wanted to challenge myself and write a tiny chapter for every day of December until Christmas - well, the daily part is sure not up to date anymore xD I seriously underestimated what having a new job would be like. 
> 
> I posted an idea on outphan's Tumblr and after receiving amazing feedback I just had to upload it 😊 It's also the reason why I'll be gifting this to them because I love "wake me up" <3
> 
> https://nicoandlevi.tumblr.com/post/180550250852/soo-since-i-always-wanted-to-write-a-story-and#notes
> 
> Soo, since I always wanted to write a story and actually finish it, I'm going to challenge myself: I want to write 24 mini-chapters for every day in December until Christmas. I already have an idea about the topic: Levi is stuck in the hospital on Christmas for a 48 hour shift, so every chapter will cover 2 hours of this shift (and there will only be minor surgeries happening). What do you think? Should I write this? I might need some more ideas about the plot though... 
> 
> Please be aware I'm a non-native speaker (greetings from Germany!) and this is unbetaed, I hope you still enjoy this tiny precious thing <3

Hi you all :)

After watching parts of GA's last episode, I couldn't stop thinking about Nico and Levi and since I cannot wait for the hiatus to end and Christmas is about to begin, I wanted to challenge myself and write a tiny chapter for every day of December until Christmas.

I wrote a prompt on NicoandLevi’s Tumblr and after receiving amazing feedback I just had to upload it 😊

https://nicoandlevi.tumblr.com/post/180550250852/soo-since-i-always-wanted-to-write-a-story-and#notes

Please be aware I'm a non-native speaker and this is unbetaed, I hope you still enjoy this tiny precious thing <3

 

UPDATE: After someone at tumblr pointed out to me that Levi maybe miiiight be jewish and thus wouldn’t celebrate Christmas (and neither does Dahlia because she’s a muslim), I slightly adjusted some details of this chapter. Hopefully, it fits better now :)

 

Prologue

_A few weeks ago_

“Guys, it’s online!”

Everyone at the interns’ locker room looked up when Levi rushed inside, nearly tripping over his own two feet while looking at his phone. He almost ran into Casey as well but could stop himself, panting. “It’s online!”, he stated again when his three friends were still staring. “The chart about our upcoming shifts?”, he explained helpfully. Instantly, everyone was diving for their phones. Once they found the right charts, the room got quiet while they kept scrolling down the document to get to their names.

 “Couldn’t they just enlist us by our first names?”, groaned Dahlia, while she furiously swiped down repeatedly. She heard mumbled sounds of agreement from Casey and Levi while they copied her movements and kept scrolling. “Hey, I think the system is fine as it is right now”, Taryn said but they ignored her. She was the one whose surname appeared on the first quarter after all.

_E, F, G, H - Helm, Taryn:_

“YES!”, she claimed triumphantly, pumping a fist into the air, “No shift on Christmas Morning!”

“Yeah, but you still have the night shift on the 24th”, Dahlia noticed distractedly while scrolling down to her name.

Taryn just shrugged, “Well, I can just go home, change into pyjamas and open my presents before I go to sleep”. The others made sounds of affirmation, eyes glued to the screens of their phones, swiping.

_M, N, O, P - Parker, Casey:_

“Thank god!”, Levi could hear his relieved whisper, “My shift is alright!”

Dahlia and Levi exchanged worried looks. For them, this wasn’t about who would miss celebrating Christmas at home, since there were other days that were more important to them than December 24th and 25th. No, this was about who would work at the hospital while _others_ were celebrating Christmas. There were so many accidents that were caused simply because people got drunk on eggnog and decided to light their Christmas tree instead of just the candles on it.

Only a few days ago, the interns had overheard Dr. Grey, Dr. Hunt and Dr. Karev reminiscing about a rather nasty incident on one Christmas Day where 25 people were involved in a bar fight after two men had an argument about the amount of presents a husband should give his wife (several broken bones and many stitches later, they had agreed that two nice gifts were completely fine). No one of the interns were too keen on spending their shift stitching up 25 drunk people and being vomited on. Considering the face Dahlia was making, she was also remembering that story.

They kept scrolling down.

_P, Q_ – Quadri, Dahlia:

Dahlia let go of a breath she had been holding ever since she started searching for her name: “I’m fine as well.” Taryn and Casey glanced at the remaining intern of their little group.

_Damnit._ Levi ducked his head. He had actually planned to spend the night of December 24th with his mum, having a nice dinner like every year. _You might need to cancel that._ He felt a sense of dread pooling in his stomach. He scrolled down.

_Q, R, S – Schmitt, Levi:_

He almost dropped his phone. His friends looked at him in alarm.

“What?”, Taryn scrolled down to his name, “you’re _ON CALL_ for Christmas!?”

Levi just groaned. “ ** _AFTER_** a 24-hour shift?!” His groan turned louder, more painful. He flopped back onto the bench dramatically, the strength in his body apparently leaving him.

The others scrolled down to his name and gave him pitiful looks. Levi couldn’t see them since he had his face buried in his hands. This shift was going to suck, he already knew it. He felt someone patting his shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll be free on New Year’s Eve”, he could hear Dahlia’s attempt to cheer him up. He just sighed, rubbing his face. “Thanks”. It got quiet in the locker room. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts. Taryn and Casey were thinking about errands they had to run before Christmas while Dahlia was watching Levi carefully, asking herself how she could help him preparing for his upcoming shift.

Levi just thought of how his mum would spend December 24th: Probably sitting alone at their dinner table, eating by herself. He already dreaded the talk he had to have with her – his brother already told them he had to cancel, and now him? His poor mum…

“ **Interns**!”

All four jumped in surprise. They hadn’t noticed Dr. Bailey entering the room. She looked down on them, her mouth crinkling into something resembling a sneer, turned around and walked out of the room, clearly wanting them to follow. They scrambled to obey her silent order.

“Christmas is about to start in a few weeks, I want all of you to be prepared for the worst-case scenarios!”, she commanded while crossing the hallway, the interns scurrying to follow. It took them a few corners to catch up on her. How could someone with such short legs be this fast? They asked themselves not for the first time since the start of their internship.

“Schmitt!”

Levi tried to catch up and keep breathing steadily at the same time. “Y-Yes, Dr. Bailey?”

The short doctor kept her eyes straight forward, not even slowing down in her pace.  
“I assume you all have seen your shift charts already?”

Levi nodded, remembered that Dr. Bailey couldn’t see him like this and hurried to answer her question. “Yes, Dr. Bailey”.

“Good”, she said while turning a corner. Levi almost ran into a cart while trying to walk next to her. It was extremely difficult to manage multitasking by keeping up with her pace, having an eye on the route they were taking through the hospital and watching t Dr. Bailey in case she was looking at him. It gave him a headache. Dr. Bailey continued.

“Then you also know that you’re on call on Christmas?”

“Yes, Dr. Bailey”. A nurse jumped out of the way as the little crowd of four interns and the short doctor practically speed walked past her.

The chief of surgery suddenly came to an abrupt halt in front of a staircase and turned towards him. The interns fumbled to stop themselves from running into her. Dr. Bailey glared at Levi, causing him to gulp in fear.

“I assigned you to that shift because you’re behind your colleagues and you need to step up your game. You will not. Mess. This. Up. Understood?” Levi’s mouth was too dry to answer, he could only nod hastily. Dr. Bailey, who obviously knew about the effect she had on him, just grunted while the corners of her mouth ticked upwards into a tiny smirk.

“Good, now follow me. We’ll do rounds and then see if there’s anything to do at the pit”

As they walked down the stairs towards their first patient, Taryn leaned over Levi’s shoulder.

“You know what you have to do when you come home tonight?”, she whispered. “Sleep. A lot!”

Dahlia turned towards them and helpfully added: “And tell your mom that you might need to postpone dinner!”

Levi just groaned. This would be the longest and worst shift ever!

 

\---

I’m not a very religious person (I’m catholic btw), so I won’t put a lot of traditional Christmasy things into the next chapters. When I think of Levi, I picture him to be a bit like Seth Cohen from O.C., California: celebrating some sort of mixture of Christmas and Hanukkah (“Chrismukkah”, anyone?). So, I might imply this idea into the next chapters.

Also: Levi has an older brother! Since some of you (including me) have picked up on Nico’s big brother aura and picture him having at least one younger sister, I think that compared to that, Levi has such a little brother mode in him. I really can’t explain it but I will add it into the next chapters!


	2. 1st Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I want to dedicate the whole story to outphan, I also decided that I want to give a shout-out in each chapter for a different author. So, in this chapter I want to give a shout out to:  
> @Fabulousfairytales (I still need to figure out how to imbed a link to the person's profile).  
> Because they also write a Schmico Advent Calendar and their stories are lovely and (unlike me) their chapters are on time! If you haven’t already, I recommend you to check out their work!

His mum hadn’t been particularly pleased when Levi had told her about his upcoming Christmas shift. Not that they were religious, Christmas celebrating people. But Mrs. Schmitt had grown up with a loving, catholic grandfather and always held a special family dinner in his honor on December 24th. This was one of the few traditions in the Schmitt household. After Elijah had already had to cancel dinner on his behalf, Mrs. Schmitt had hoped that she could at least enjoy dinner with her youngest son.

While she had been a bit sad that now they had to postpone their dinner plans all together, she had also understood how important working as an intern at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital was for her youngest son. So, with a huff and a strained smile, she had given him a reassuring hug. “It’s just dinner”, she had said while patting his shoulder in a _there, there_ gesture, “we can still eat once you’re home and well-rested.”

That was three weeks ago. Now, Levi was staying in front of said hospital, breathing in the cold, fresh air of winter and mentally preparing himself for what was to come. He had been trying to be extra thoughtful and nice at home as well as at the hospital: He made notes about all the incoming patients (in case some of them would return during his shift and they had overlooked even the slightest detail), new cases as well as all the new methods he was learning every day. Levi knew he was clumsy and awkward, but he really didn’t want to mess up this Christmas shift! People were supposed to be home celebrating this time of year and yet there were burn victims from forgotten candles or a short-circuit of Christmas tree lights. Stressed-out people came in with heart-attacks, broken ankles from falling down a ladder or ice-skating accidents.

_You can do this!_ he told himself for the umpteenth time, finally starting to believe in the words at least a little. He straightened his shoulders, gripped the straps of his backpack and made his way over to the entrance, only tripping over one hidden bump in the asphalt. Clearing his throat and trying to act casual, he entered the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor.  
_Let’s go, Schmitt!_

When he sat in the interns’ locker room and changed into his scrubs, he noticed a package in his backpack, wrapped-up in bright red paper. There was a card attached to it with a dog clad in a doctor’s lab coat on the front. Reading it, he instantly recognized his mum’s handwriting:

_Dear Levi,_

_I’m soo proud of you and what you’ve accomplished so far! You’re saving so many lifes and today, you will be saving Christmas for many people as well. You’re my son and an incredible doctor, keep that in mind during your shift!_

_Hopefully, this package will help to bring you at least a little joy during your working hours._

_I love you, mum_

Levi couldn’t help but smile. _Oh, mum!_ Inside the package was a container with his favourite cookies with a note that said he should enjoy these on his (hopefully!) many breaks, two cans of energy drinks and one of cold-brewed espresso ( _I’ve heard how awful the coffee at the cafeteria can be sometimes, hopefully this helps!_ ), chocolate ( _mood lifters! <3 )_ and a gift that, according to the note sticking to it, he wasn’t allowed to open until his last hours of his on-call shift. Levi just sat there, taking it all in. He really had the best mum. Suddenly, his shift didn’t seem like a looming cloud of doom that had been hovering over his head ever since he had looked at his shift chart.

Now, it seemed a lot less scary. He could actually do this. No, he _would_ do this!

He was jus finishing with changing into his scrubs when Taryn slipped into the room, slightly out of breath. “I _hate_ traffic!”, she grumbled while practically jumping out of her street clothes and changing into her scrubs in record timing. She had just finished tying her laces, when Dr. Webber appeared at the door: “Interns, follow me!”. They all scrambled after him. Taryn gave Levi a scrutinizing look. “You ready for this?”, she whispered with a hint of concern in her voice. As they followed Dr. Webber down the hallway towards the first patient to start their rounds, they passed a man clad in dark jeans and a leather jacket. Just as Levi was about to scurry by, the man looked up and their eyes met for a second. It was Nico, apparently on his way out. Levi almost ran into Taryn’s back while trying to maintain eye contact with him. The bustling crowd of interns turned a corner, Levi lagging behind. Nico entered an elevator, still looking at him. Levi saw a glimpse of a smirk just as he turned the corner and the elevator doors closed.

_Yeah_ , he thought to himself, chasing after the others, _Yeah, I think I am._

 

\---

Soo, Levi has a brother called Elijah – I don’t know why but I felt it would fit :) what do you think?

 


	3. 2nd Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All my medical knowledge is based on GA and wikipedia. I miight have gotten a thing or two from my apprenticeship as a therapist but that's basically it. So, apologies if this isn't very accurate.  
> Also please have in mind: this is unbeta-ed, I'm not a native speaker and I mix up british and american english a lot. I hope, you still enjoy this bit <3
> 
> This chapter is dedicated to @shesbreathless because I just love their schmico stories and they made the last 12 days of Christmas a lot brighter <3

Levi just caught up to the group as the last intern filed into the patient’s room. Since there were just a few of them, they all fitted in comfortably even with the amount of decoration in the room. Despite his short career as an intern at the hospital, Levi already knew that there were two types of patients around Christmas: Type 1 who hates to be in the hospital on Christmas and tries to ignore the decoration in the hallway, thus trying to keep any Christmas related ornaments out and away from their room. Type 2 was the complete opposite: Since they couldn’t celebrate Christmas at home, they or their family clearly made an effort to try and bring Christmas _into_ the hospital.

The current patient definitely belonged to the last category : As soon as you stepped into the room, the air smelled like Christmas, a tiny radio was softly playing Christmas songs and you definitely _felt_ like Christmas. It was obvious that the patient didn’t decorate the room: The boy lying in the hospital bed looked like he didn’t fit into the picture, the way he tried to shrink back and even even trying to hide beneath his duvet in embarrassment. A bouffant woman flitted around him, adjusting ornaments here, rearranging photos there. Dr. Webber cleared his throat to remind the interns to pay attention. Heads that were glued to tiny figurines a millisecond ago snapped up guiltily.

“Helm, present the case!”. Taryn stepped forward.

“Peter Wright, 15 years old. Diagnosed with Grade 1 chondrosarcoma in his left knee. This is his… uh”, she blinked at the pad in her hand, “4th tumour. The others were osteochondromas located around his left hip and left knee area. He had been cancer free for two years. Before that, he had been treated with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.”

“Thank you. Dr. Schmitt, any ideas how we should proceed now?” Levi perked up, fumbling with his pad for a second. He turned towards Peter and the woman, presumably his mother, and explained.

“Um, s-since this is your fourth tumour, Peter, we need to check if this is the only tumour and test for metastasis. I suggest we run a complete blood count as well as a CT to make sure that we won’t miss anything. Afterwards there is no other strategy than to remove the tumour by surgery and treat the area with radiation and chemotherapy.”

Dr. Webber nodded. “Very well, thank you Dr. Schmitt”. Levi let go of a breath he wasn’t aware he had been holding while presenting. Relief washed over him like a hot shower on a cold day as he stepped back between his colleagues. Peter’s mother smiled timidly at the doctors. She wore a bright red sweater with a snowman clad in a top hat on it. At second glimpse, Levi realized that hers and her son’s sweater were matching.

“We had really hoped that we could celebrate a quiet Christmas at home”, she said apologetically while gesturing at the room’s décor, “Well, now we’re here again. Hopefully, we will be out before Easter! We really, really hope there won’t be any metastasis!”. The boy in the bed huffed, crossing his arms with a wince. “Mum, please. As if I was planning to be sick on Christmas!”

“Dear, I wasn’t implying that!”, she said, clutching her chest. “Please don’t think I’m giving you any fault! We’ll be having it nice and cosy here. It’s not like we are doing this for the first time” She turned back to the doctors: “Please, do your best, okay? I know I can’t do anything but stay here and support my son but please, we need all the support we can get. The last hospital we were in was just plain horrible-” “ ** _MUM!”_**

“What? They need to know!”

Dr. Webber cleared his throat again, patting the woman’s elbow reassuringly. “Mrs. Parker, your son is in very capable hands”, he said, “but we need to get started right away, considering your son’s history”

Mrs. Parker nodded, dabbing at the corners of her eyes that had started to glisten with unshed tears. “Okay”, she whispered. Dr. Webber nodded as well, turning towards the door. On their way out, Mrs. Parker stopped them by opening a large tin: “Cookie? I heard, sugar can boost your brain functions if just for a short time but anything to make this more successful, so…-“

“MUM!”

“Aw, Peter! They are your doctors, we need them on our good side, sweetie!”

“Yeah, but-“

The doctors escaped the room and hurried down the corridor to avoid witnessing a fight that was clearly starting to unfold. Dr. Webber entered the next room, the interns following him. This room was the complete opposite of the previous one: It was completely bare of any Christmas decoration. The patient however smiled at them tiredly, sitting on the side of her bed.

“Hi Doctors!” Dr. Webber smiled and nodded a greeting. “Good evening, Miss Powell”. He turned towards the interns.

“Dr. Carter!”

A small, strawberry blonde woman stepped forward, glancing at the pad in her hands.

“Alisa Powell, 32, sprained her ankle while ice-skating and got admitted three days ago. Blood test and CT was clear, she will be discharged tomorrow morning.”. Miss Powell perked up.

“Hopefully, we won’t see each other again!” Dr. Webber smiled.

“Fingers crossed, Miss Powell!”. The woman made a dismissing hand gesture.

“Oh please, do call me Alisa.”

-

The hallway in front of their next patient was slightly crowded: Nurses were huddling together, whispering and giggling. Some were occasionally pointing towards the door of the patient’s room. Dr. Webber made a disapproving noise and shooed the nurses away. “Okay, folks”, he said while turning towards the interns. “I know, considering it’s Christmas and some of you might be very religious, I want you to stay neutral and treat this patient like any other patient. So: be friendly yet professional, be respectful yet helpful. Got it?”

They nodded while craning their heads to try and get a glimpse of the patient through the window next to the door. Their efforts where futile however, because the blinds were drawn. This didn’t tune down the curiosity of the group. Levi felt Taryn elbowing him excitedly. Dr. Webber gave them a scrutinizing look. The interns tried to straighten themselves up and act professionally. Finally, their superior turned the door knob and entered the room, gesturing for them to follow.

At first glance, the room and the patient on the bed seemed pretty normal: An afro-american woman with dark, curly hair and a large baby bump was leaning back on several pillows, looking very exhausted. Levi could feel the disappointment radiating from Taryn. Clearly, she had hoped for an extraordinary case. Dr. Webber cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “This is Maria Davidson, 40 years old, 39 weeks pregnant. She was admitted due to having contractions”

He looked at the confused looking interns and took a deep breath of exasperation, as if he was fighting to roll his eyes.

“Her due date is tomorrow, the 24th”

Instantly, every intern in the room perked up. Levi threw Taryn a wide-eyed glance, which she reciprocated. Her face was the epitome of a _say what?_ meme. Her jaw trembled, as if she was fighting to drop it. Dr. Webber watched them disapprovingly. He silently dared them to say anything unprofessional, but they didn’t dare to. Everyone tried to focus on anything in the room, anything except the actual patient. Said patient must have been very aware of the tension in the room. Instead of feeling awkward and ducking her head like Levi was doing in 99% of the cases, she chose to smile at Dr. Webber and the interns.

“Hi”.

The interns muttered equal greetings, squirming sheepishly. Some tried to hide their embarrassment by leaning behind Dr. Webber. The ex-Chief cleared his throat, reversing the attention to him.

“Well,”, he began, stepping forward to the woman in the bed. “Ms. Davidson, how are you? How are the contractions?”

Now it was her who was squirming in discomfort. She laid a hand on her bump and tried to sit up. “Uhm, quite hurtful”, she confessed, “I really hope that you can give me the good stuff, so this will be as painless as possible”. She gave the doctors a tight-lipped grin.

Dr. Webber nodded in understanding. „We are just going to run some test”, he reassured her, “Afterwards, Dr. Karev will see what he can do for you and your baby”. Ms. Davidson sighed. “This must seem so strange to you”. At Dr. Webber’s confused gaze, she gestured towards her large belly. “I mean: I’m here right before Christmas Eve like this and I can’t even remember how I got here! I’m single for god’s sake and… uhm…”. She glanced around the room. Her next words seemed to cause her a lot of distress: “I don’t know how I could have gotten pregnant. I didn’t have sex in ages!”

-

The rounds were slightly uneventful after that.

After the last patient, they followed Dr. Webber to the ER where they were assigned to the attendings they would assist for the day.

Taryn caught up to Levi, bumping his shoulder.

“So, do you think he’s out for a hot date or is he always dressed like that?”, she said casually.

He didn’t even have to ask who she meant. Clearly, she had seen how he had almost run into the hot- er… how he had almost run into the Dr. Link’s fellow. _Yes, he is a fellow_ , Levi tried to hammer the words into his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about”, he hissed at his friend. Her grin just grew until she almost resembled the Cheshire cat. With a _psh!_ sound, she slapped his shoulder. “As if you don’t know”, she whispered back and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Well, if you don’t want to talk about it now: I have _all_ night and you know, I have my ways to get people to talk”.

Levi pressed his lips together. And to think, he had been relieved that he would be spending part of his shift with Taryn.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whooops! Merry (belated) Christmas! I'm soo sorry that I didn't update this sooner!  
> I hope, the new chapter can get you over the fact that this Christmas story is not even close to finished while Christmas is already way over. I'm a very unorganized person, please accept my apologies!  
> Thank you so much for the lovely reviews, they mean a lot to me :)
> 
> I haven't started writing the next chapter, but I will hopefully be able to in the next days.  
> See you next year! <3 Take care!


End file.
